Price of simple stuff getting too dear for me.

I schlep my own from home.

What a great time in this country. Subway fare is up, food is up, rent is up, paycheck is the same.

Wait, something costs more today than it did in the recent past? Get out of here. You might want to alert the news media, they'll be very interested to hear about this new phenomenom of inflating prices. If only there was some word to describe it.

Flagpole Willy, where are you?! I think this person needs your economic advice!!

Its like the 70s all over again. And the 30s. and so on, and so on... has happened before, will happen again.

Price of corn is up because of government subsidy of corn ethanol and increased demand from outside the country. Investors speculate on corn, China and India have a huge population and not a lot of advanced agriculture, so corn prices go up. Farmers, sensing an opportunity, plant more corn, therefore they plant less wheat. So, now we have a shortage of wheat, and wheat prices are waaaay up this year($25 a bushel vs $5 last year). Increased price of wheat = increased price of bagel.

Also, Bush invades Iraq, Iran has nuclear program, Israel/Palestine thing is just as bad as ever, oil prices go up. Gas prices follow, energy prices follow, so it takes more money to get the now more expensive raw materials, to transport and process those raw materials, and to get the finished product into stores. So there you go, factory needs to charge you more for your bagel because they have to pay more to make them.

OIdManRunner wrote:

Flagpole Willy, where are you?! I think this person needs your economic advice!!

Ok.

Original poster, guess you need to get some Lender's bagels from the grocery store and eat those. 6 to a package now instead of just 5. Are they as good as your fresh bagels? No. Can't have everything you want in life and win financially.

What to do when inflation hits? Either spend less or make more money or both. Too many people are down on inflation. Gotta go make the money you need brothers and sisters. My income has outpaced inflation the last 20 years. Yours can too.

There was a single guy who worked for the company I did a few years ago -- he was late 20s. He really wanted to make some serious money and be able to retire early, so he had two full-time jobs that he held for more than 4 years. He made more than $100,000 total from those two jobs (IT guy) and he invested 60% of his takehome pay. Pretty extreme, but in just 4 years he got an awesome start on his portfolio. Point is that if you're single without kids, you can work 16 hours a day every day if you want to. Just go work for a few months extra and put that money in an interest-bearing account and decide that that's your bagel money, and so now you won't ever care about the price of bagels. Do that for anything you want. Not sure of your marital status or what all you have going on, but any single person who complains that they don't make enough money and yet only works 8 hours a day gets no sympathy from me. I took extra jobs after being married with kids when I needed some additional cash flow. Tougher for me to have done it that a single person with no kids.

Flagpole Willy wrote:

OIdManRunner wrote:

Flagpole Willy, where are you?! I think this person needs your economic advice!!

Just go work for a few months extra and put that money in an interest-bearing account

considering the levels of inflation we are about to see thats a pretty dumb idea. If you are going to do all that work dont just piss it away like that. Buy Euros, Yuans, or pounds. (well maybe not pounds but you get the point).

Hayduke wrote:

What a great time in this country. Subway fare is up, food is up, rent is up, paycheck is the same.

Paycheck is less than last year.

After a 2% raise for everyone our health care cut went up 20%; paycheck now is a few dollars less than last year.

you're a healthy runner. live on the edge...drop that health care and buy a few more bagels!!!!

Even worse, Beer Futures look bleak. The price for beer is increasing and will continue to rise. Reduced crops of hops have led to a worldwide shortage.

http://www.charlotte.com/breaking_news/story/516825.html

So its going to be more expensive just trying to drink our recession sorrows away. A double whammy.

I've been harping on this for a long time, but I'll say it again: The decline of the U.S. dollar on the world currency markets over the past five years or so is a huge story that has not gotten the attention that it deserves from the U.S. public. The dollars that you are paid, and the dollars that you have stashed away, are worth just 60% of what they were worth a few years ago against other major currencies. It's not surprising that commodities are becoming much more expensive in dollar terms. And it's silly to suggest that the dollar decline is good for the U.S. because it helps U.S. exports. Of course a 40% cut in U.S. wages will make certain U.S. exports more competitive on price, but that's the type of competitive advantage that third-world countries rely on to survive. It's not the type of competitive advantage that wealthy countries rely on to sustain and enhance domestic prosperity.

exciamember wrote:

Flagpole Willy wrote:

Just go work for a few months extra and put that money in an interest-bearing account

considering the levels of inflation we are about to see thats a pretty dumb idea. If you are going to do all that work dont just piss it away like that. Buy Euros, Yuans, or pounds. (well maybe not pounds but you get the point).

You and Peeps need to get together. Extra money that you decide to make (other than NOT making it) and then putting it into an interest bearing account like a Money Market Account or an ING account or something liquid of that nature, is not a dumb idea at all. Understand the problem the guy was facing -- expensive bagels. Easy to solve that big problem of his by working a little more and putting that money earned into an interest-bearing account. Now he's got bagel money. If inflation ever bothers him, then he needs to go take another extra job and make more money. There's no ceiling on the amount of money we're allowed to make my brother.

Now, would I create a separate account just for bagels? Nope. I would create one (and have) just to throw extra money in and watch grow just for emergencies. Maybe expensive bagels are his emergency.

Looking past the price of bialys.

I suspect OP is trolling about the effect on the economy the lack of basic food stuffs brings about. Breadbasket of America is drying up(global warming or not) crops sizes are down in the US and sustenance foods/grains are costing more daily. No excess crop to export for profit either. Does not bode well for our economic future .

A better way to look at this is to look at how many hours or minutes of work. If you calculate it that way you get a better idea of the cost. For instance when cellphones first came out it might take months of work to pay for one. Now it is a few hours.

While paychecks have not increased a lot (and in some cases they have), your compensation has increased since I bet your employer is still paying the bulk of your health insurance premiums.

BTW, health insurance costs will sky rocket if the House and Senate pass a bill (and it gets signed) that would require insurers to cover mental health treatment to the same extent it does other medical treatments. What we need is LESS government regulation in insurance, not more.

Aha, there's the silver lining to my fairly recently discovered gluten intolerance: spending 100% less on bagels this year.

Flagpole, the OP implied NYC in using the word "midtown". You're in the same region of the country where my first couple decades transpired so I realize you simply don't know better, but Lenders and its ilk are not considered bagels here, any more than Mogen David 20/20 is considered wine in say Burgundy. Better, in this town, to scale back on rent/mortgage and move from one's sprawling 400 square foot palace to a more reasonable 250 square foot estate than to resort to frozen imitation bagels.

Weak dollar also means foreigners can bits and pieces of America on the cheap.

Hayduke wrote:

What a great time in this country. Subway fare is up, food is up, rent is up, paycheck is the same.

And with dems in power, "taxes are up"

please dont squeeze the garmin wrote:

Better, in this town, to scale back on rent/mortgage and move from one's sprawling 400 square foot palace to a more reasonable 250 square foot estate than to resort to frozen imitation bagels.

OK, that made me laugh.

I work in the food industry and we are getting killed by commodity prices. We use tons of soy bean oil, which is about double what it was last year. We can only pass so much of that increase on to the consumer.

Thank you corn ethanol market for making all other grains too expensive (and not making fuel any cheaper).

luv2run wrote:

BTW, health insurance costs will sky rocket if the House and Senate pass a bill (and it gets signed) that would require insurers to cover mental health treatment to the same extent it does other medical treatments. What we need is LESS government regulation in insurance, not more.

You are very wrong, and I used to work as a helath insurance actuary when my state passed this law, so I know. The increase is negligible compared to the non-mental costs going up at 10%+ every year, and won't be noticed. The saving grace is that stupidity is not considered a mental illness.